Community renewal and large public housing estates

Abstract

The extent of social disadvantage in local neighbourhoods has come to the fore in recent years, partly as a result of the problems that State Housing Authorities have faced in managing the concentrations of socially marginalised populations on larger public housing estates. However, a wider understanding of the processes at play in these neighbourhoods is needed to inform policy development. We consider the evolution of local renewal policy in New South Wales at the present time and suggest potential policy options for the future.     

Community renewal and large public housing estates

The extent of social disadvantage in local neighbourhoods has come to the fore in recent years, partly as a result of the problems that State Housing Authorities have faced in managing the concentrations of socially marginalised populations on larger public housing estates. However, a wider understanding of the processes at play in these neighbourhoods is needed to inform policy development. We consider the evolution of local renewal policy in New South Wales at the present time and suggest potential policy options for the future.     

Post-war public high-rise housing estates: What went wrong with housing policy,with the design and with management?

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment -     

The changing environment and neighbourhood satisfaction in socialist high-rise panel housing estates: The time-comparative perceptions of elderly residents in Prague

Population aging represents a significant trend in shaping contemporary urban areas, and research investigating various aspects of age-friendly cities and neighbourhoods has enjoyed increasing attention from urban scholars and practitioners. The neighbourhood transformations that have been taking place in socialist high-rise panel housing estates in the last 20 years raise concerns as to how they are experienced by local elderly populations. Although a number of studies have addressed recent developments in high-rise panel estates in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), little is known about the self-perceived residential quality of elderly inhabitants. This paper investigates the neighbourhood satisfaction of the elderly living in housing estates in Prague, the Czech Republic. The focus of this study is on their perceptions of the opportunities and barriers presented by the changing residential environments in relation to their daily independence. The paper takes a time-comparative approach based on face-to-face interviews with elderly adults from three different study areas. The findings suggest that neighbourhood satisfaction is influenced, among other factors, by the “life stage” of the housing estate, by the individual circumstances of moving to the neighbourhood and by the time to adapt to the new environment. Although the elderly evaluate housing estates as convenient places to live, the risks related to demographic aging and the deterioration of local facilities must be taken seriously.     

Post-war large housing estates in Norway – Well-kept residential areas still stigmatised?

The large post-war housing estates constitute an important part of the housing resources in the large Norwegian cities, and the estates seem to present fairly satisfactory conditions physically and socially, compared to similar areas in other countries. Even so, Norwegian large housing estates are held in low esteem. Many of them are stigmatised, and there are some examples of areas facing grave problems. There are several reasons why large housing estates are held in low esteem and have a rather low score on socio-economic and social indicators. Low attraction, low preference for high-rise living, a deregulated housing market, the labelling process, spatial inequality and increasing socio-economic inequality have an impact on segregation and deprivation. We identify some additional factors to explain why large housing estates in Norway still seem to offer fairly satisfactory conditions: a mixed housing stock, the small size of Norwegian cities and estates, a growing local housing market, tenure (low proportion of rented dwellings and public housing), the composition of the occupants, low unemployment rate and a highly redistributing welfare system. Still, many estates are stigmatised and to a certain degree deprived. In these areas we see a need for initiatives to improve the situation. The results of most area-based initiatives in Norway have been positive, but it requires a long-term engagement, a broad perspective and variety of actions, close cooperation with the residents and sufficient resources. The housing co-operatives (co-ops) can create a good starting point for such processes of change when most of the population are already organised through co-ops.     

Locating Chinese urban housing policy in an international context

China’s economic development has often been contrasted with that of other transition economies in Europe, but academics have fought shy of making direct comparisons of urban housing reform in the two systems. This paper fills this gap by making such direct comparisons. Adopting the market - housing model advocated by the World Bank as an analytical framework it finds that extensive housing privatisation in China is supported by a system of urban housing property rights and a growing residential mortgage market. Although China has a distinctive institutional framework, there is also much variety among the European transition countries, and a distinctive Chinese model was not identified; so this micro-level analysis did not support the contention that China represents a form of "contested modernity." Nonetheless, a crucial point arises from China's hybrid status as a developing as well as a transition country. The bulk of the urban migrant population remains excluded from formal housing policy and enabling strategies that form an element of the market - housing model especially in developing countries are not so much replaced by a distinctive Chinese model as by a yawning gap.     

Stigma and social housing estates: Beyond pathological explanations

This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the causes of stigma as it afflicts severely disadvantaged housing estates. It begins with a review of the literature on stigma and housing estates, identifying a lack of research and analysis of the causes of stigma specifically, yet a subtle adherence to pathological explanations. The remainder of the paper discusses evidence from a research project on stigmatised estates in the UK, identifying and counterpoising various perspectives on the causes of stigma. It concludes by offering an alternative framework for understanding the phenomenon of stigmatised estates which moves beyond pathological explanations to focus on the roles and contributions of external actors and influences.     

Redevelopment of public housing estates: The Australian experience

This paper provides an overview of some key aspects of the different contemporary approaches being utilised across the Australian States to redevelop public housing estates. Questions are raised about the effects of the projects on existing and future tenants, both in terms of the strategies used to address particular concentrations of disadvantage on the estates and the success in maintaining the current and future supply of public housing stock. In addition, the study points to the need for further evaluation of the approaches used in redevelopment, as currently little is known about the success or otherwise of the projects.     

Residential satisfaction in housing estates: a Hong Kong perspective

Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) has been developed to address the problem of acquiring feedback from the occupants who are, arguably, in the best position to provide information for a future design database. This paper presents a study of the factors (on both physical and social levels), which influence residential satisfaction of a sample of occupants in a chosen residential area in Hong Kong; factor analysis and multiple regression were carried out on the data. A comparison is also made of the perceived factors of dissatisfaction amongst the public and private housing occupants. It is suggested that a wider systematic coverage of the subject through investigative and diagnostic POE should be carried out in Hong Kong.     

Modernist housing estates in European cities of the Western and Eastern Blocs

The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast modernist housing projects in Western and Eastern Blocs built in the period of accelerated urban growth that took place mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. The obvious starting point is that cities in the Eastern Bloc were different from Western cities because of the distinct nature of their urban policies, the centrally planned economy, the absence of a free land market, the impact of industrialization on building construction, etc. However, there are many concepts in urban planning and design, as well as urban processes and urban forms, shared by both ideological systems and that can be clearly recognized in housing estates from that period.

This paper offers a comparative perspective of the nature of some of those modern Housing Estates built on both sides of the Iron Curtain such as Grands Ensembles in France, Großsiedlungen in Germany, Polígonos de viviendas in Spain, or Socialist Housing Estates equivalents in Eastern Bloc countries. The goal is to understand how mass housing forms were related to the modernist international urban culture of the Athens Charter and what was the role of urban design in the significant loss of environmental quality appreciable either in the West or in the East in those years of accelerated urban growth almost everywhere in Europe.     

浅议居民小区消防安全现状与对策

针对当前层出不穷的居民社区火灾,阐述了改善和加强城市居民小区消防安全的必要性,分析了当前居民小区消防安全管理工作存在的问题,并结合城市居民小区消防现状,提出了相应的消防安全防范措施,以期提高居民小区预防和抵御火灾的能力。     

珠江三角洲住区休憩时间分配与住区规划

通过对珠江三角洲（Pearl River Delta,PRD）10个住区的问卷调查和实地调研,采用文献研究和数理统计等方法,分析了该地区9类居民休憩活动的时间分配特征.研究结果表明：性别、年龄、职业和学历等个人或家庭因素对休憩活动类型的选择、活动持续时间有影响,但对各类活动影响的程度有所不同;居民休憩行为在多方面影响住区规划设计.指出了住区规划设计中应注意的若干问题,最后提出了住区规划应树立更全面的科学观和以人为本的观念.     

The rise of gated housing estates in Ghana: Empirical insights from three communities in metropolitan Accra

In metropolitan Accra, Ghana’s economic and administrative hub, the global phenomenon of the gated housing estate is burgeoning, representing a substantial part of the new housing market. It has a recent history dating back only to the neoliberal era of the mid-1990s. Because it is a new phenomenon in Ghana very little is known about the motivations and contentment of residents, interactions within and outside the gates, and perceptions toward gated residents. This paper takes the first step by providing empirical insights from three communities (Manet Court, Devtraco Villas, and Regimanuel Estate) located in Metropolitan Accra. The data suggest that perceived concern for security is the primary motivation for the residents to live in these communities. Contrary to findings of other studies, the current research reveals that there are appreciable levels of interaction among the residents in these communities, although such interaction exists purely on the economic level, with gated housing estates providing a considerable level of low-income employment opportunities to surrounding residents. The paper concludes by identifying some of the key urban planning challenges that have so far accompanied gated housing development.     

Tackling crime and vandalism on post-war housing estates: The Dutch approach

This paper is based on two papers presented at the Paris conference, “Housing debates—Urban challenges”, 3–6 July 1990. Our research is part of a large-scale research project being conducted at the Research Institute for Policy Sciences and Technology (OTB) at the University of Delft into the problems of vandalism and crime on housing estates. This research is sponsored by the Ministries of Justice and Home Affairs, and affiliated to the research program of Urban Networks.     

Livability of subsidized housing estates in marketized socialist China: An institutional interpretation

To cope with the increasingly severe problem of housing unaffordability brought about by marketization reforms, the government of marketized socialist China has adopted a nationwide policy of constructing large-scale subsidized housing estates. However, the livability of these housing estates is yet to be investigated. Improvements in the livability of these estates must be based on an in-depth understanding of institutional forces and processes. A household survey of 11 subsidized housing estates suggests that the unfavorable quality of built environments, largely owing to the spatially and socially isolated locations, cannot meet the actual needs of low-income residents. The inheritance from the socialist planned economy, including the bureaucratic administrative system, limited and inefficient negotiations between government departments, and a limited and unstable supply of land that rooted in the land marketization reform, has significantly influenced the provision of subsidized housing as well as its livability.     

On garden-city lines: looking into social housing estates of interwar Europe

Through the use of oral and documentary sources, this article links post‐war reconstruction and traffic management together, to illustrate how the planning process had an overwhelming effect on a community in Oxford. Three decades of planning blight took its toll on families and business in the area. Paradoxically, the reconstruction plans may have unwittingly shaped a neighbourhood into a thriving, tolerant, multi‐racial community. Post‐war reconstruction of cities was inevitably essential in some cities. As more people depended on cars, creating new municipal buildings and making urban motorways, traffic management was synchronized alongside redevelopment. As post‐war urban redevelopment projects gathered momentum, established communities became at risk of being destroyed. Decisions were taken by professionals and politicians with minimal public participation. Resistance to such schemes required organization and energy in order to take on the establishment. This article examines a redevelopment plan, other plans that affected the scheme, residents’ resistance to the project and the effects this major plan had on a community. A key component of this article focuses on the perspectives of the objectors, as their voice is often missing.     

The role of the private sector in housing renewal: Lessons from the neighbourhood revitalisation services experiment in England

During the 1980s the British government made a number of attempts to involve the private sector in the administration and financing of housing renewal initiatives in inner city areas. One of the most significant of these was the Neighbourhood Revitalisation Services (NRS) initiative which was based on the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) concept developed in the United States. This paper traces the history of housing renewal policy in England leading up to the development of the NRS initiative. It then compares the NHS projects developed in the United States with the English NRS model and discusses the key differences. The performance of both the pilot NRS projects and the expanded programme of government‐funded NRS schemes is then examined in detail with particular emphasis upon the objective of involving private sector organisations in housing renewal. In conclusion the paper discusses the reasons why the NRS initiative failed to meet these objectives including those stemming from the differing housing and financial policy contexts in England and the United States. Ways are also suggested in which attempts to involve the private sector might be more successful in the future.     

Modern housing estates and the production of the Brazilian city (1937–1960)

ABSTRACT

The social issue of housing has been a focal point in the criticism of Brazilian modernity, and it still plays a central role in the balance of Brazilian democracy. This paper discusses the investments in modern housing made by the welfare system in Brazil and which are related to the country's transition toward an urban society in the late 1930s. The analysis concludes in the 1960s, when these investments ended. The relationship between housing and the industrial economy characterized urban development in Brazil in this period. The latter saw direct state intervention in overseeing the building of houses for urban workers. This process started during Brazil's authoritarian regime [1937–1945], just as the cycle of Brazilian industrial democracy began in the mid-forties. The state housing policy worsened the urban crisis while also increasing the real estate market. It triggered several major controversies including an imbalance in urban classes associated with exclusively rich and poor neighbourhoods. The extension of the housing policy and social benefits to all citizens triggered tensions. These findings explain the challenges of political process, the changes in the housing policy and the swelling of Brazilian urban society.